The Ultimate Guide to Earning the Southwest Airlines Compaion Pass [2025]
When I first learned about the Southwest Airlines “Companion Pass”, I didn’t believe it was real. Two years of Buy-One-Get-One-Free flights, anywhere that Southwest Airlines flies? Yeah right.
So, after one full year of having a Compaion Pass, here’s the tea.
What is the Southwest Companion Pass?
While it’s been around for many years, Southwest has been very quiet about its Companion Pass promotion. And for good reason: they’re essentially giving an unlimited number of people an unlimited BOGO deal on all flights.
Why would they spend money advertising something that cuts their profits?
It’s really the travel blogs like this one, and the rise of budget travel content on social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest that have given this deal it’s time in the sun.
In summary, the Southwest Companion Pass does exactly what the name suggests:
- When Companion Pass holders book any Southwest Flight (both domestic and international), they may add their Compaion (which can be anyone, related or not) for the cost of taxes and fees only.
- Taxes and fees for Companions start at $5.60 one way, or $11.20 roundtrip, but can be higher for international destinations where you’re paying taxes and fees for two countries.
- Companion Passes are granted by calendar year, so once earned, you have the Pass for the entire rest of the calendar year, and the entire following year, maxxing at 24 months per Compaion Pass earned.
- You may change who your Companion is up to 3 times per calendar year, so it’s best if you set your Companion as someone who you know can travel with you most of the time.
Who is a Good Candidate for a Companion Pass?
Those who know me, know I started my traveling on the young side. At 20 years old I spent 6 months teaching English in Taiwan. At 24 I spent two months learning Spanish in Ecuador. At 26 I married an Australian—with multiple ceremonies across both continents (but that’s a story for another time). And tons more trips in between.
Travel has been my main “hobby” for my entire adult life, but that doesn’t mean that the Southwest Companion Pass would have always been useful for me.
You may bee a good candidate for the Southwest Compaion Pass if:
- You have a significant other, child, or friend you wish to travel with more regularly; and,
- Budget is more important to you that luxury or status when flying; and,
- You have several North American destinations you’re interested in visiting in the next 2~ years; and,
- You have a good credit score (660+) and are willing to open 1-2 new credit cards.
If all four of these apply to you, you’re a perfect fit for a Southwest Companion Pass!
How Do You Earn the Companion Pass?
This is where it gets a little juciy.
There are two methods for earning a Southwest Companion Pass: you can fly 100 qualifying one-way flights (so, 50 roundtrip flights), or you can earn 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year.
But, let’s be real… unless you’re flying for work constantly (we’re talking 1-2 roundtrip tickets per week) on Southwest Airlines, 100 one-way flights in a year is crazy work for the Companion Pass. I would even go as far to say that it’s not worth it and you should probably choose a different airline for that level of loyalty/status.
135,000 qualifying points, however, is totally doable for normal people.
Two ways to hit the qualifying points needed:
- Open a personal Southwest credit card.
There are three personal card options with various extra benefits with annual fees between $69-149. Each of these earn 40,000 bonus points when you hit the sign up bonus by spending $3,000 within 4 months of opening the card. You also earn 10,000 points each year just for holding the card, totalling 50,000 points.
There are several strategies for earning the additional 85,000 points needed. One of the best, in my opinion, is booking hotels through the Southwest Hotels portal.
For these bookings, with your Southwest card and Rapid Rewards ID number in hand, you’ll be earning 2 points per dollar spent, as well as the listed bonus points per night. (Be sure to ‘sort by points’.) Here are some hotel deals I found recently in the portal with prices as well as points earned per night:
So with your base of 50,000 points for opening a personal card, a hypothetical 20,000 points you put on the card from your every day spend and bills for 6~ months, and a few road trips to hit these high-point hotel stays, it’s possible to hit the 135,000 points and snag that golden ticket—er, Companion Pass.
2. Open both a personal Southwest credit card AND a business Southwest credit card.
You are not allowed to open two personal Southwest cards, but you can have two. One just must be a business card.
If you have any way to claim a business: if you’ve sold things on Etsy or Facebook Marketplace or eBay, if you’ve driven for Uber or DoorDash, if you’ve done some photography on the side for some friends, you CAN open a business credit card. You don’t even need an LLC, EIN, or anything else—you can apply for a business card with just your SSN!
The Southwest Business cards are worth 80,000 points (with annual fee of $199 plus $5,000 spent on the card within the first 3 months from opening), and 60,000 points (with annual fee of $99 plus $3,000 spent on the card within the first 3 months from opening), respectively.
I, personally, combined the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus credit card for 50,000 points and the Southwest Performance Business credit card for 80,000 points.
Once hitting the opening spends, I was at 138,000 points, and got the Companion Pass immediately. Granted I was getting married at the time and had a lot of extra expenses, but this entire process for both cards took me two months.
My annual fees for both cards combined are $268, but to me this is a great deal for my husband to fly free with me everywhere on Southwest. I’m happy with how it worked out. Here are all of the card options you can explore and combine!
My Honest Review
If I don’t love it, I don’t share it!
I’m sharing this strategy with the world (and yes, totally for free) because I enjoy having the Companion Pass. I enjoy flying for nearly free with my husband, and getting to stretch our travel budget further with this tool in our pockets.
A few things I wish I had known when I started my journey towards Companion Pass:
- All the points you earn towards the 135,000 needed for the Companion Pass (CP) MUST be earned in the calendar year. If you get a head start and earn a bunch of Southwest points in December, they’ll be wiped from your progress bar towards CP on January 1st.
- Southwest is a very solid mid-tier airline. They have never lost my luggage, I have gotten to the destination on time every flight in the past year, and the Wifi is pretty decent these days for streaming. However, if flying in lay-flat seats and getting free alcohol is important to you, you’re not getting those kinds of frills on this airline. There are no lounges and no first class cabins. Most people flying Southwest are more budget travelers, and you have to be accepting and friendly about this to enjoy flying Southwest regularly.
- Southwest doesn’t have a lot of nonstop options from my home airport (GSP)—only 3-4 cities per day. This is okay! But means that my travel days on Southwest are a bit long with usually one or more layovers. I would recommend double checking that you’re happy with the Southwest routes readily available to you before chasing after the Companion Pass. For free flights it’s worth it to me, but may make the Companion Pass less usable for some.
- Any points you purchase or transfer in from someone else’s Rapid Rewards account will NOT count towards your CP qualifying points.
- We have flown to DC, Hawaii, California, and Texas so far with my ticket covered by the points we earned, and my husband’s free with the Companion Pass! And we still have 11 more months to go with the Pass!
- All in all, this is an amazing promotion, and if I were doing it again, I would get started today!
